January 2007
 A
team from Rotherham Ready, the Yorkshire Forward funded
programme for enterprise education, recently visited
Glasgow at the invitation of the Reed Academy of Enterprise
and the Scottish Executive to find out how Scotland
is making strides in developing enterprising school
students. Backed by an investment of £86m
from 2003 to 2008, the ‘Determined to Succeed’ programme
is a national strategy for enterprise education led
by the Scottish Executive and delivered by the 32 Local
Authorities across Scotland working with enterprise
co-ordinators in schools.
The Rotherham delegation was part
of a national delegation from schools across England
as well as representatives of the DTI , Ofsted and
the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.
The two day conference was introduced
by Michael Cross, Head of the Determined to Succeed
division in the Scottish Executive and included input
from HMIE, Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish
Qualifications Authority. On the second day,
delegates had an opportunity to visit local schools
and see the impact of Determined to Succeed in practice.
Michael Cross outlined how Determined
to Succeed is a “culture change programme” designed
to create a generation of confident and ambitious Scots. The
programme has focused on five clear strands: Opportunities
for young people; leadership and professional development
for teachers; engaging the commitment of the business
community; a national framework of activity with significant
communications support; a strong lead on research,
evaluation and monitoring.
Mike Garnock-Jones, Project Manager
of Rotherham Ready, commented: “There are
strong similarities, just a difference in scale. In
Rotherham, we are working to engage all our schools
and colleges, from primary upwards, to give every young
person from 4-19 the enterprising skills they will
need to make their futures – in the same way
as Determined to Succeed is doing in Scotland.”
Mike adds, “We were encouraged
as we contrasted and compared with the Scottish Executive
strategy to find how much progress we have clearly
made in Rotherham. Like Determined to Succeed,
we have focused on Professional Development opportunities
for teachers and have just launched a new award with
Sheffield Hallam University. Our schools have
been the first in England to gain the Warwick University
award for Enterprise Education and we are now looking
at developing a bank of learning resources which
are already starting to grow as part of the programme. In
England we don’t have a national Enterprise
Education strategy as such, but we feel in Rotherham
that we do, and that strategy is essentially built
on a strong partnership of all the key bodies concerned
with enterprise in our area.”
The visit was a big success with the
delegation from Rotherham. Sally Monk, teacher
and enterprise champion at Kiveton Park Meadows Junior School, said, “I
just wanted to say a big thank you for organising
such a good couple of days in Glasgow! It was not only
well organised, but very informative and thought provoking!
I have made some great contacts and have come
back to school full of enthusiasm and full of ideas!”
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